Mike Walsh, best-selling author of FUTURETAINMENT and CEO of innovation research lab Tomorrow, is a leading authority on the digital future. He helps to prepare business leaders for what’s next. Rather than focusing on the distant future, Mike takes an anthropological approach – scanning the near horizon for disruptive technologies and consumer innovations on the verge of hitting critical mass, and then translating these into usable business strategies. Mike’s expertise is explaining new patterns of consumer behavior and disruptive technologies in emerging markets.

His advisory work and keynote presentations provide unique insights into the growing influence of new markets on breakthrough innovation and business transformation. A global nomad constantly traveling the world for the best ideas – Mike distills the most relevant insights into tailored keynotes that allow any audience to not only understand, but also start to inﬂuence the future direction of their industry.

Mike Walsh helps prepare business leaders for what’s next. With an engaging blend of first hand stories, global case studies and cutting edge research into consumer and technology trends – Mike can bring the future to life for you and your audience.

PROGRAM TOPICS

Mike Walsh’s three core programs are:

FUTURETAINMENT (what’s next for your customers?)

FLEX (what’s next for your enterprise?)

THE FUGUE (what’s next for the world?)

You can experience these topics as either a high impact 50 minute keynote or a half day workshop with interactive exercises and facilitated discussion. Supported by a global network of analysts and researchers – Mike takes the time to work with you and your team to tailor his presentations to directly address the issues directly relevant to your company and industry.

FUTURETAINMENT – Yesterday The World Changed, Now Its Your Turn

Welcome to the Revolution. The balance of power has shifted and consumers have taken control. How we buy, sell and engage customers with our brands is being transformed by powerful new forces – both technological and anthropological. Based on Mike Walsh’s best selling book, FUTURETAINMENT is a fast paced tour of the latest technologies, global trends, and case studies that will forever change the way you think about your relationship with your customers. In this session Mike shares:

The most disruptive trends for 2012 specifically researched for your industry

Products and promotions that will engage the next generation of consumers

Original video interviews with the scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs whose ideas will drive the future of your business

FLEX – Business Re-Imagined
What does it take to lead a 21st century company? New technology is not only an opportunity to improve productivity, it invites us to ask a much bigger question – can we re-imagine the way we do business? Forces of change surround us. Whether it be generational turnover, the Cloud, mobile work, or the rise of the social enterprise – the companies that thrive in the near future will be the ones that not only embrace change but are the first to break the rules.

With original consumer market research, practical evaluations of next generational enterprise tools and case studies from some of the world’s most innovative firms – you will have everything you need to start thinking like a FLEX firm. In this session Mike shares:

The new digital platforms and enterprise tools that can change the relationship you have with your customers and competitors

The worldview of your next generation of staff and the new management styles necessary to lead them through disruptive times

The new models of innovation suitable for the current, fast paced, uncertain global environment

How consumerization, enterprise mobility and the Cloud will change the way your teams colloborate and act on information

Relevant case studies of the ‘winners circle’ of companies who have survived disruptive change

A roadmap for your company’s future and identify the capabilities you will need to take it there

WORLD NEXT – Your Roadmap To The Global Future
Social unrest, economic turmoil, rapid technological change – we live in a world seemingly dominated by crisis. And yet if you look more closely, you may also see a different set of patterns giving rise to new markets, new consumers and new ways to do business.

The future is already here, you just need to know where to look. From disruptive mobile technology from China to India’s low cost business models, next generation mobile banking in Africa and social consumerism in South America – innovation is shifting to a new geography. How we interact, transact and entertain ourselves in the future will be shaped by a billion new consumers from emerging markets. THE FUGUE is your roadmap to understanding and accessing the growth potential of tomorrow’s world. In this session Mike shares:

How the Web of tomorrow will be different from the one we use today

New markets, consumers and technology trends that will be essential for the global growth of your business

Case studies of international companies who have successfully leveraged cultural forces for local market success

The winners and losers in the new digital world order and your company’s readiness to survive or thrive

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS AND WORKSHOPSTOMORROWLAND – Tales from the Near Future
The future is already here – you just need to know where to look. Virtual currencies in China, web organized ﬂash mobs in Korea, and cashless mobile banking in Africa – sometimes the most disruptive product ideas come from the most unlikely of places. The secret to seeing what’s coming next is to pay close attention to the spaces where all the rules are being broken. Come on a fast paced global tour of the disruptive technologies that will directly impact you and your industry.

THE DIVERGENCE – Why the Future of The Web Will Be Like Nothing You Know Today
What we think of the Web today is only a fraction of its future potential. The Divergence marks the point where everything we know about the digital world will change. In the coming years, the emerging markets of China, India and Brazil will rapidly overtake the West not only in their rates of economic growth, but as the dominant commercial and cultural inﬂuences on the development of the Web. How we interact, transact and entertain ourselves in the future will be shaped by new forms of consumer behavior never seen this side of Silicon Valley. Forget everything you know about West Coast Web etiquette. Tomorrow’s Web will be a milieu of competing cultures – simultaneously a source of conflict and also a wellspring of consumer innovation.

THE ENERWEB – Energy’s Networked Future
Information may be power, but power is also be information. Global environmental concerns are driving not only new investment in renewable energy but also the transformation of the analog power grid into a smart, digital network. What we think of today as a simple electricity outlet will soon become a node in a new networked ecosystem of appliances, applications, and consumer data. The rise of the Enerweb will attract both new kinds of players and encourage new forms of consumer behavior, forever changing the way we think about energy.

UBIQUITOUS – 24HRS in Tomorrow’s Mobile World
While faster processors, bigger screens and more powerful features steal the headlines – the true mobile revolution plays out daily in its continuing impact on the way we live, work and play. The next generation of phone technology is less about innovative hardware, and more about providing consumers with ubiquitous, high speed access to our social, professional and entertainment networks. From location based technologies, to gesture based interfaces and integrated financial services – the future of your phone may be no phone at all. For advertisers and platform providers alike – the secret to understanding the mobile business of tomorrow is to understand how today’s consumer is already changing.

WORKSHOPS

NEXTLAB – How to Think Like a Futurist
NEXTLAB is a unique learning format. Part insights brieﬁng and part hands on innovation workshop – you will learn to apply the latest tools and techniques that future forecasters use to map out the most signiﬁcant technological, social and commercial trends on the near horizon. NEXTLAB is a 90 minute session designed for small, dynamic groups. The workshop is divided into three sections – theory, tools and application. In the ﬁrst section, we discuss the latest thinking around innovation and consumer behavior, and their inﬂuence on future outcomes. The next module – tools – is focused on the insight gathering methods used by the world’s best forecasters and explains how you can apply these in your every day activities. Finally, in the third section we conduct a series of practical group exercises that facilitate building a picture of the future of your individual company and industry.

Discover the top ten forces that are already changing the relationship you have with your customers

INNOVISION – Bring Future Visions to Life
Innovision is a radically different approach to future thinking and scenario planning. The objective of the Innovision Workshop is to develop a shared view on the challenges and untapped opportunities facing the future timeline of the company and its stakeholders, and capture this in a compelling format for broader comm-unication. In a half day format, our unique process adapts lateral thinking and sophisticated narrative development techniques developed by creative professionals to develop entertainment products. The Workshop is structured into three parts, that loosely follow the structure of a three act film or play. During the discussion, the Tomorrow team will identify keywords and phrases that characterize the scenarios and use these to develop a visual storyboard, used to build the rough cut of the Innovision film presented at the end of the session. We believe that the Innovision process offers a number of benefits over and above a more traditional strategy workshop formats:

A more engaging, dynamic and creative framework for collective brainstorming and scenario testing of future conflicts and opportunities

Character based approach builds empathy with potential stakeholders and clearer identification of the implications of strategic tradeoffs

The final result – a five minute mini film – provides a powerful communication tool for wider distribution

CONNECT! – The Simple Guide to Social Engineering
This session is an engaging, interactive workshop focused on helping business managers and entrepreneurs harness social networking to transform their customer marketing and communications. Incorporating live demonstrations and case studies of brands that have successfully used services like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin – this workshop uncovers some of the secrets that social networking gurus use to turn their customers into evangelists.

How consumers are already talking about your brand, and how to participate in the conversation

How to use Twitter to build your ‘herd’ of brand followers> Building ‘content sharing’ into your website to tap into free network marketing

Leveraging Linkedin for targeted business development

How to track what your customers are already saying about you in online forums

Integrating social media with your CRM strategy – from sales to customer support

Developing the right ‘tone’ to talk to your customers on blogs, Twitter and video podcasts

The best tools, web services and infrastructure providers to partner with to achieve instant results